List of Famous people born in Ontario, Canada
Justin Bieber
Justin Drew Bieber is a Canadian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Discovered at age 13 by talent manager Scooter Braun after he had watched Bieber's YouTube cover song videos, Bieber was signed to RBMG Records in 2008. With Bieber's debut EP My World, released in late 2009, Bieber became the first artist to have seven songs from a debut record chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
Drake
Aubrey Drake Graham is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, and entrepreneur. A prominent figure in popular music, Drake is credited for popularizing the Toronto sound. He first gained recognition as an actor on the teen drama television series Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001-2007); intent on pursuing a career in music, he left the series after releasing his debut mixtape Room for Improvement. He released two more independent projects, Comeback Season and So Far Gone, before signing to Young Money Entertainment.
Jim Carrey
James Eugene Carrey is a Canadian-American actor, comedian and writer. Known for his energetic slapstick performances, Carrey first gained recognition in 1990, after landing a regular role in the American sketch comedy television series In Living Color. His first leading roles in motion pictures came with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), The Mask (1994), Dumb and Dumber (1994), and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), as well portraying the Riddler in Batman Forever (1995), and the lead role in Liar Liar (1997).
Emma Raducanu
Emma Raducanu is a British tennis player.
Avril Lavigne
Avril Ramona Lavigne is a Canadian singer, songwriter and actress. By the age of 15, she had appeared on stage with Shania Twain, and by 16, she had signed a two-album recording contract with Arista Records worth more than $2 million.
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Thomas Gosling is a Canadian actor and musician. He began his career as a child star on the Disney Channel's The Mickey Mouse Club (1993–1995), and went on to appear in other family entertainment programs, including Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1995) and Goosebumps (1996). His first starring film role was as a Jewish neo-Nazi in The Believer (2001), and he went on to star in several independent films, including Murder by Numbers (2002), The Slaughter Rule (2002), and The United States of Leland (2003).
Shawn Mendes
Shawn Peter Raul Mendes is a Canadian singer and songwriter. He gained a following in 2013, posting song covers on the video-sharing application Vine. The following year, he caught the attention of artist manager Andrew Gertler and Island Records A&R Ziggy Chareton, which led to him signing a deal with the record label. Mendes's self-titled debut EP was released in 2014, followed by his debut studio album Handwritten in 2015. Handwritten debuted atop the US Billboard 200, making Mendes one of five artists ever to debut at number one before the age of 18. The single "Stitches" reached number one in the UK and the top 10 in the US and Canada.
John Candy
John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian known mainly for his work in Hollywood films. Candy rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of the Second City and its Second City Television (SCTV) series, and through his appearances in comedy films, including Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, Summer Rental, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle Buck, as well as more dramatic roles in Only the Lonely and JFK. One of his most renowned onscreen performances was as Del Griffith, the talkative shower-curtain ring salesman in the John Hughes comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles. In addition to his work as an actor, Candy was a co-owner of the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League from 1991 until his death, and the team won the 1991 Grey Cup under his ownership. Candy died of a heart attack in 1994 at the age of 43. His final two films, Wagons East and Canadian Bacon, are dedicated to his memory.
Sunny Leone
Karenjit Kaur Vohra, known by her stage name Sunny Leone, is a model and an actress in the Indian film industry and a former pornographic actress. She has Indian, Canadian and American citizenship. She has also used the stage name Karen Malhotra. She was named Penthouse Pet of the Year in 2003, was a contract performer for Vivid Entertainment, and was named by Maxim as one of the 12 top porn stars in 2010.
Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau is a Canadian politician who has served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada since 2015 and has been the leader of the Liberal Party since 2013. Trudeau is the second-youngest prime minister in Canadian history; he is also the first to be the child or other relative of a previous holder of the post, as the eldest son of Pierre Trudeau.
Nora Fatehi
Nora Fatehi (born 6 February 1992) is a Canadian dancer, model, actress, singer and producer who is best known for her work in the Indian film industry. She has appeared in Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil language films. She made her film debut in the Bollywood film Roar: Tigers of the Sundarbans. She gained popularity in Telugu cinema by doing item numbers in films like Temper, Baahubali: The Beginning and Kick 2 and has also starred in two Malayalam films, Double Barrel and Kayamkulam Kochunni.
Rachel McAdams
Rachel Anne McAdams is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a theatre degree program at York University in 2001, she worked in Canadian television and film productions, such as the drama film Perfect Pie (2002), for which she received a Genie Award nomination, the comedy film My Name Is Tanino (2002), and the comedy series Slings and Arrows (2003–2005), for which she won a Gemini Award.
Alanis Morissette
Alanis Nadine Morissette is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with two mildly successful dance-pop albums. Afterward, as part of a recording deal, she moved to Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. In 1995, she released Jagged Little Pill, a more rock-oriented album which sold more than 33 million copies globally and is her most critically acclaimed work to date. This was made into a rock musical of the same name in 2017, which earned 15 Tony Award nominations including Best Musical. Her follow-up album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was released in 1998.
Daniel Levy
Daniel Joseph Levy is a Canadian actor, writer, director, and producer. Born in Toronto to parents Eugene Levy and Deborah Divine, he began his career as a television host on MTV Canada. Levy received international prominence and critical acclaim for starring as David Rose in the CBC sitcom Schitt's Creek (2015–2020), which he also co-created and co-starred in with his father.
Catherine O'Hara
Catherine Anne O'Hara is a Canadian actress, comedian, writer, and singer. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Genie Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and five Canadian Screen Awards. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2018 and was honored with the Governor General's Performing Arts Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award in 2020. O'Hara first drew notice as an actress in 1974 as a member of The Second City improvisational comedy troupe in Toronto. She landed her first significant television role starring opposite John Candy and Dan Aykroyd in the main cast of the sitcom Coming Up Rosie (1975–1978). The following year, O'Hara and Candy began work on the sketch comedy series Second City Television (1976–84), where she drew critical acclaim for both her work as a comedic actress and writer, winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 1981.
Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward Aykroyd, is a Canadian actor, producer, comedian, musician, and filmmaker who was an original member of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on Saturday Night Live (1975–1979). A musical sketch he performed with John Belushi on SNL, the Blues Brothers, turned into an actual performing band and then the 1980 film The Blues Brothers.
Justine Musk
Justine Musk is a Canadian author.
Luke Macfarlane
Thomas Luke Macfarlane is a Canadian-American actor and singer. He is known for playing Scotty Wandell on the ABC television drama Brothers & Sisters (2006–2011), RAC Agent D'avin Jaqobis on the Space television science fiction series Killjoys (2015–2019) and the romantic lead in a number of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies.
Tristan Thompson
Tristan Trevor James Thompson is a Canadian professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics of the NBA. He played one season of college basketball for the Texas Longhorns before being drafted fourth overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2011 NBA draft. He has also played for the Canadian national team. Thompson won an NBA championship with the Cavaliers in 2016.
Peter Aykroyd
Peter Hugh Aykroyd is a Canadian actor, comedian and writer.